"What is the world for if you can't make it up the way you want it?"

"I'm writing for black people, in the same way that Tolstoy was writing for Russians, not for a little white island in the Caribbean."

"I think that's the most important thing, to be yourself."

"I don't belong to anybody. I don't belong to any group. I belong to myself."

"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs, you have the privilege of not being a slave.'"